Frans Week (2022)

Food

Frisk and Sans were cuddling on the couch, pseudo-watching one of Mettaton's shows. Sans' fingers were mindlessly playing with Frisk's hair but was startled out of his daydreaming when Frisk popped up from her position and turned to look at him.

"Can I cook for you? I have this recipe I want you to try." Her eyes were wide with excitement.

"yeah, but what brought this up?" He was a bit confused but wasn't going to turn down an opportunity to do something with his girlfriend.

"I don't know, honestly... It just, kind of came to mind, and it's a comfort of mine." Her smile turned melancholic.

"wanna do it for dinner?" He wasn't going to push any further, and he was kind of curious. The only thing he could think of as being a comfort food for her was Toriel's pies, and Tori had already tried to teach him that one (it ended not so well.)

"That'd be great, but first, we have to go the store. I don't have everything I need." She pushed herself off of him and the couch and went upstairs to get something more appropriate for going out (at least something better than a shirt littered with holes and pants stained with paint.)

She threw on one of her older sweaters and grabbed a pair of jeans before descending the stairs to see her bonehead of a boyfirend at the door with her car keys.

"ready to go?" She rolled her eyes and brushed by him, grabbing her keys as she passed.

"Yeah, are you?" He gave a large grin and walked to the passenger side door.

~~~~~~

When they made it to the store, Frisk's eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas. She grabbed a buggy and started darting through the aisles. She only needed to go to the store for canned corn, ramen, and ground-beef, but she may have also grabbed a few other things to use later. Everything else she needed was at Sans' place (it was practically her too.)

She made it to the check out line and bounced on her toes with Sans by her side, a smile on his face but still looking confused.

"why are you always so happy to come here?" Frisk turned to look at him as she put the groceries on the conveyor belt and smiled.

"I'll tell you while were cooking. It has to do with this recipe." Her eyes held a peculiar sadness behind him, but Sans decided to patient.

~~~~~~

When they made it back home, Sans grabbed a pot and skillet while Frisk put away some of the groceries they had just bought.

"Can you put some water in the pot, put the burger in the skillet, and turn both eyes on high heat?" Frisk was busy grabbing some of the other ingredients that were needed.

"uh, yeah... any measurements?" She shook her head and laughed a little.

"Nope, just enough water to cover the noodles." She made her way to the stove carrying a couple of seasonings and some chopped vegetables.

Frisk started with some soy and Worcestershire sauce, then threw in a couple handfuls of scallions. She dumped some sliced white button mushrooms into the skillet and allowed the mushrooms to soak up the flavor of the meat as it browned. Before the meat was completely done, she threw in some garlic paste and the canned corn and mixed it in. While this happened, she had Sans put the noodles in the water once it had started boiling. When she was happy with everything she strained the noodles and threw on the prepackaged seasoning then mixed it with the burger concoction.

"you were pretty quiet while we were cooking... now that we're sat down, wanna tell me what the grocery store was about?" She twirled the noodles around on her fork.

"Um, yeah... I didn't exactly come from the best of circumstances. I know how stupid that sounds, knowing what you had to go through..." She paused. "Anyway, I- When I was younger, I didn't really have anywhere to go. I bounced from place to place, a lot."

"One day, I met someone. They showed me a much simpler version of this recipe. I think I get excited about going to the grocery store because I didn't use to be able to, and it's really shown me how far I've come. Maybe I'm afraid? All of this could just be some machination of my damaged psyche? I don't really know." She looked up at him to see his face set in a mixture of anger and pity.

"why did no one else help you? were you alone throughout all of this?" She shrunk at his questioning.

"Chara is right in some aspects. Humans don't typically care about each other. The ones that do are walked on and regarded as weak. Some of us lie to gain power, others do so to survive and protect those they care about. I wasn't alone, in the sense that I was the only going through it. There are a lot of people that face this kind of stuff. When I would ask for help, I was told to go back to my parents and beg for their forgiveness; it was obviously my fault that I was kicked to the curb. That's not even what happened. Before running to Mt Ebott, I was told to get a job. I had no form of education. I had to steal to survive. Even then, I realized people go through their own forms of pain, and I could never see mine as being worse than others. I never did understand how some people can just ignore the suffering of others." She blinked back a couple of tears.

"The person I had met was a mother. She had been taken from her children by her abuser. She told me that she remembered teaching her daughter this recipe and that her daughter would add her own flair to it because she loved cooking. It was one of the seldom moments she wasn't with the man, that she taught me. She would immediately become docile and seemed to be an entirely different person when he was around. I don't actually know what happened to her after we parted ways. I didn't even get a name. I just have to hope that everything turned out okay. I met more people like that, too. Kind souls that were going through hell." She poked at her noodles and ate a mushroom.

"It turned out great for me, and now, since I'm the ambassador for monsterkind, I can help out in other areas of the community because I have some political leeway. I also have you. You help me in so many ways. I know what I would do without you. I also know it wouldn't be pretty." She smiled as she continued to eat, ignoring Sans' look of shock.

"how can you be so calm about divulging all of that? how are you eating!?" Frisk swallowed and sighed.

"Honestly, I became numb to it. After falling into the Underground, I was brutally killed multiple times. I killed my friends and the only family I'd come to know because someone outside of our conception of reality thought they were just playing a game. I actually did that multiple times. Afterwards, I had to convince my future boyfriend that, no, I, in fact, did not want to kill everybody that he knew. I still have nightmares about being vaporized, and I wake up fearing that you're all going to forget me, or worse yet, that I'm going to wake up in the field of golden flowers again. Being homeless and neglected for what used to be most of my life feels pretty insignificant compared to the hundreds of times I was forced to brutally murder the people I care about. When it comes to talking about negative stuff and eating afterwards, I just had to get used to it. Otherwise, I was going to end up starving myself, and I figured that may not be a good idea. Do you know how many timelines I've lived through just to die and have to do it all over again? Too many." Sans froze, not knowing how to respond or even if he could.

"I'm sorry... We were trying to have a quiet dinner, and I messed it up..." She let her fork clank against the ceramic bowl as she put her hands in her lap.

"no. i'm glad you told me. i remember some of the previous timelines. although, i wouldn't be able to tell you about the past pacifistic ones. i hurt you. i killed you. you said it yourself. why did you agree to start dating me?" He moved to Frisk's side of the table to comfort her.

"You asked me to. I fell in love with you almost immediately. Then, everything with the player happened, and you hated me. I figured if you asked me out, it was a sign to go for it. I wanted to know that you had healed, that you were ready. Simply put, I wanted a romantic relationship with you, and you asked." She smiled a little, not looking at him.

They sat there, in silence, just thinking to themselves. Neither wanted to disturb the peace that had settled over the two and their long forgotten food.